| JOUST 1983, ATARI |
 
Joust is a very popular Arcade game released by Williams Electronics in 1982. Atari got license to port it to the 2600 in 1983 and it's become one of the more popular "Silver Label" cartridges of the era.
In Joust, you play a Romanesque Jouster contestant on a flying ostrich in a arena that features lava, platforms, enemy combatants on ostriches, and a teridactyl that likes to show up periodically to ruin your day. The object is to poach each of your enemy combatants, and then steal the egg that spawns when hit. The game works a lot like Balloon Fight for the NES, and could be considered it's ancestor for this style of game. Joust did amazing and is one of the most popular games. It's one of the very very rare few 2600 games I've owned BOXED twice. I sold my 2nd boxed copy in 2021 to buy Dragon Warrior IV for the NES. I now have an unboxed "player grade" copy, which is the type I prefer to use these days.My Experiences We bought Joust for my first 2600 in 1989 at Kay-Bee Toys in Opelika for about $0.99-$5.00-ish IIRC. I liked playing it but it was not one that drew me in as much as some others at the time, but I had some fond memories of it. I think the physics were a little much for a 7 year old. When I bought my second copy, I had over 325 cartridges in my collection at the time and was struggling to find time to play it because any session with the Atari would end up hours long and I'd end up playing a totally different array of games. It was kept though during the 2014 "purge" and then sold to buy Dragon Warrior IV in 2021. I bought this unboxed copy recently just to give it a chance IIRC, either that or it came with a manual with the Heavy Sixer I restored in late 2024. It's been getting a LOT more airtime since I got a CX-78+ gamepad, which has helped as sometimes my wrists/hands hurt with my well used CX-40s.Videos Walkthroughs/Manuals/Reviews |
